You wouldn't believe it, but something actually, truly interesting came out of the Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit yesterday. Apple had conducted a survey to find out why, exactly, consumers opted to go with Android instead of the iPhone. The results are fascinating - not only do they seem to invalidate Apple's claims, they provide an unusual insight into consumer behaviour. The gist? People choose Android not because it's an iPhone copy - they choose it because of Android's unique characteristics.

I agree with people wanting the latest and greatest. But I don't agree with Apple not being able to deliver. The Android ecosystem is huge, and kudos to them for that. Android Is exactly what the industry needs in order to keep everyone on a straight(ish) path. However, I believe in Apple's power to consistently deliver beyond expectations. For the last 14 years Apple has delivered and innovated like nobody. Apple, with less financial resources than Google, Yahoo or Microsoft, has been able to deliver better than them altogether.

Since 2011, the differences minus a Steve Jobs and a big plus in financial resources. Apple has more cash than Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook altogether and I can only hope that they are investing it into competing by delivering rather than competing by lawsuits. For the sake of Wall Street, they all also have to compete by lawsuits, but until now competing has been 90% by innovation. The rest of the 10% have been lawsuits for the sake of PR.
Samsung's Galaxy line would have been nothing on the market without the awareness brought on by the Apple suits. Samsung's biggest partner is Apple. Do the math.

Until now, both Apple platforms have had an at a more than satisfactory evolution, so I can't find any reason to doubt their future. While I'm an Apple user, I watch the competition closely, and I'm hoping that they all evolve at a similar pace, with Apple making just enough difference to make my investment until now count. The difference being the same difference that we see in the price.

They have only one phone. iPhone. Not only that, but all the phones they launched are nothing more than an up-to-date.

Basically they didn't make 4 phones, they made only ONE.

Every other smartphone maker offers a lot of different brands.

Some try for the corporate market, others go for the gamers like Xperia Play.

But it's not just the hardware, it's the software as well.

I'm not talking about the app stores, they're pretty much the same, but the underlying OS. Not just Android, but every other non-iOS OS.

They all offer something, and while you may be happy with Apple and have been for 15 years, others have different tastes, different needs.
Which they can get only with a large variety, something that Apple doesn't have.

They're a big corporation, they have lots of money, but they're still thinking like the little guys with 1% share of the market.

They're a big corporation, they have lots of money, but they're still thinking like the little guys with 1% share of the market.

That's what makes Apple products so good!! Large corporations usually suck at innovation. Look at M$. There is a reason that most innovation comes from small companies. Apple has been able to hold onto that mind set. I just hope they can continue to do so.

Look at this column, you are saying "Android" vs "iPhone" You are comparing apples and oranges! You should compare iPhone's to Galaxy S3's. You cannot really compare iOS to Android since Most Android phones use an outdated version that will never get updated. Another consequence of its fragmentation. The Android market would be completely fragmented if it were not for Samsung's dominance.

You guy's don't get it! Apple makes one line of computers, one line of phones one line of ipods and they do them all very well! If they make 15 different phones none would be very good (see Samsung's phones).

Which they can get only with a large variety, something that Apple doesn't have.

So what is the problem? There're zillions of different phones available from companies that use "fire&forget" tactics.
Apple is one of few who stay focused on their primary product. I used several Sony-Ericsson phones for a decade, but I no more wish to support a company that can't even support their less-than-year-old product.

Samsung's Galaxy line would have been nothing on the market without the awareness brought on by the Apple suits. Samsung's biggest partner is Apple. Do the math.

This is actually a rather interesting point. While I do not believe your conclusion that Apple and Samsung are pretending to hate one another with these legal filings only to be patting one another on the back in private (we're talking about tech companies, not our politicians), your point about public awareness is valid nevertheless. While I doubt it was Apple's intent to draw attention and promote Samsung's Galaxy line in a back-handed way, in some cases it has happened that way. It reminds me of many things in history, most notably whenever a government or religion attempts to put down a popular revolt. The more you revile it, the more you end up popularizing and promoting it at the same time. It seems we really are doomed to repeat history, although this time with tech companies and legal battles rather than soldiers and swords. Progress, I suppose.

So from 1998 to 2012 you think they innovated like nobody?
1996: The first palm pilot is released
1998: The first mp3 player with a harddisk(4.8GB)
2001: Apple releases mp3 player with harddisk
2006: Jeff Han demos his breakthrough touchscreen
2006: LG(Prada) releases first finger touchscreen phone
2007: Apple releases smartphone with finger touchscreen

For the sake of Wall Street, they all also have to compete by lawsuits, but until now competing has been 90% by innovation. The rest of the 10% have been lawsuits for the sake of PR.
Samsung's Galaxy line would have been nothing on the market without the awareness brought on by the Apple suits. Samsung's biggest partner is Apple. Do the math.

Microsoft and Apple are demanding money from every smartphone maker for work they didn't do. If both companies never existed we would still have the same phones we have today. Samsungs Galaxy line gained awareness when they started making good quality products with a good OS.

Until now, both Apple platforms have had an at a more than satisfactory evolution...with Apple making just enough difference to make my investment until now count

Agreed. Apple has a satisfactory evolution. If I liked the way Apple devices work I would have no problem staying with it each year.

This is overly US centric view and in fact where Galaxy found its initial success is the rest of the world. There's a reason SGSII got into the US half a year after everywhere else.

Galaxy S won hearts of the consumers bc Samsung struck the right balance about highendness, price and software customization, form factor, focusing on things that mattered and not overly compromising on those that turned out didn't (like the shell). It was simply a really good device.
SGSII has blown everybody else (in Android world) by providing exceptional HW , very polished SW (thanks to extensive Samsung optimizations to Gingerbread among others). Easy hack-ability wasn't without an impact (1mo hackers can spread the word) too.
The 3rd most important device is the Ace, that has set the new standards for low - middle end space (taking it over from HTC Wildfire).
The success Samsung enjoys now is fully deserved by the hard work they have put into their devices plus huge marketing dollars in excellent carrier relationships (they have basically replaced Nokia here).

The problem with exceeding expectatons, is that everyone expects that much more out of you everytime. No one can keep that up. The iphone 4s, for instance. What part of that was above anyone's expectations? Dual processors? Siri ?

OS X became better than 0s 9 years ago. Ipods were cool once they supported windows and were flash based. But I don't think they'll be more than a foot note in history. Once you step outside the reality distortion field, you'd notice that Apple has only introduced 2 ipods that were revolutionary ( original windows usb one, and mini), 2 revolutionary phones ( iphone & iphone 4), one modernized tablet ( original ipad) . That's still amazing and incredible, but every feature & spec bump isn't revolutionary.

Apple had its head in the sand for the last many years [...] missed out [...] attitude of arrogance [...] the rest of the world passed us by [...] we need to bring the Mac up into the modern world [...] because we weren't first, because we didn't set the standards [...] this whole notion of being so proprietary in every facet what we do has really hurt us [...] reinvent the wheel our own way; and yeah it might be 10% better but usually it ended up being about 50% worse

(plus the whole ~"we've been always shameless about stealing great ideas")